Joomla Tutorial: Converting Static Website To Joomla 1.5

This tutorial will help you to convert a static website ( FrontPage/ Dreamweaver) to Joomla 1.5

Its a difficult task to manage static websites. A simple text change requires you to first make those changes locally and then upload them to the hosting account.  This process in Joomla is simple with  the flexibility a CMS application.  That is the reason so many people are This is why many people consider converting their static websites to Joomla. To convert your static website to Joomla, there are two processes involved: actual website data addition and redesigning your website.

Start with transferring the data  first- it is a lot easier to recreate your website design with the data in place. Data addition takes place in two stages: pages and menu.
First create your main menu and a home item to show the contents of your front page.

1. Log in to the Joomla admin area> “Menu Manager” >> click on “New” button to start creating your menu.
2. Next, create a title and description for the new menu. Later you will have to add modules to this.
3. Start adding items to your menu. Click on ‘New’ at the top-right part of the page. For this tutorial, lets create a single item ‘homepage’
4. Now you will have to chose the menu type.  The item in this menu will show your front page. Thus, open the “Articles” category> click on “Front Page Blog Layout” item type.
5. In the title field, put in Home” in the title field. The title will now appear menu link displayed on your website. You can edit this anytime you wish from the admin area.
6. Click on the “Save” button at the top-right part of the page.
7. Now you have to set this menu item as default. So when your website is opened this page will be loaded first. You have to set a default page in Joomla- otherwise a”404 Component not found” error will be displayed when someone opens your website. Click on check box next to your menu item > press the “Default” button.
8. Your menu is now complete. Now add a module to your website to show your menu. For that, got to ‘Extensions’> Module Manager>> ‘New’ button on the top of the page.
9. Select”Menu” for module type and click “Next”.
10. Set a name for the module and select “Enabled”.
11. Select the position where the module should be displayed. In this tutorial we’ll create a horizontal menu right under the main header, for eg: “user3” as position. If the position is not available in the drop-down list, you can simply type it.
12. Top right menu> Click on ‘Save’ You are all set  to create the main menu and its first item. You can add additional items to the menu from the menu manager. Try out the different types of menus to see how they display your content.
13. You can start adding the content to the new Joomla site. For each page of content from your static site, you can create a New Article in Joomla. Here is  how you can learn to create new articles in  Joomla.

After adding all your data to the Joomla site, you can redesign your website through a previously created template or by creating a new template. If you want to start creating your design from scratch, you can refer to our tutorial on How to create a simple Joomla 1.5 template.

Please refer to the other Joomla 1.5 tutorials on our website for information on how to create different types of pages, add extensions, etc.